12.2.25
On the Friday before Thanksgiving week (which I took off entirely to burn some vacation days before I hit my cap), Julie and I went out to one of my favorite Atlanta music venues, the Earl, to see a Swedish artist named Jens Lekman.

I've seen him twice before, once at the Variety and once at the Earl. Julie came with me to that second show, and it was a bit of a disappointment—he didn't bring even a minimal band with him, so it was him singing and playing guitar along to prerecorded backing tracks, and he sometimes even abandoned the guitar so he was basically just singing karaoke to his own songs.

This time, however, even though he was playing the same venue as that disappointing show, he brought a full band with him, and it made all the difference. His latest album is about weddings, and was inspired by his own experiences as a wedding singer. He collaborated on the project with a novelist who wrote a companion fiction book to the album, and Jens structured the show so that a narrator would read passages from the novel to set the scene for the songs.

Who knows how long it will take him to make another record and how many years it might be before he mounts another US tour that comes through Atlanta, but I'm so glad that I have this concert as my most recent memory of seeing him live. The show at the Variety was amazing, and it was such a bummer that his last show at the Earl didn't live up to expectations. This show more than made up for that, and made me fall in love with his music all over again, especially the new songs that I'm still getting to know.

12.3.25
Thanksgiving was pretty busy this year. In addition to my sister, her husband, my mom, and Julie's mom (all of whom are local), my dad and stepmother also made the trip down from NC. And my cousin, who I haven't seen in four or five years, also drove down from NC separately with his new wife, his stepson, and their newborn daughter.

Everyone came over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and it was just the right sized crowd—the house felt very full in a good way, but not overcrowded. The turkey came out great as usual (I have used Alton Brown's brining method for years), and my sister actually arrived pretty on time, which is a rarity.

On Friday we went to the art museum with my dad and stepmother at my stepmother's urging—one of the special exhibits was a newly-opened retrospective of an artist named Minnie Evans, a folk artist who spent part of her life working at Airlie Gardens, which is just around the corner from my parents' house in Wilmington NC. I hadn't heard of her before even though I'm a big fan of outsider/folk art, so I enjoyed learning more about her and getting to see a wide selection of her works. We also got to revisit the Kim Chong Hak exhibit one last time before it closed.

On Friday night, the whole group from Thanksgiving met up at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see the Garden Lights, a light and sound holiday display that Julie and Will and I have visited at least once every year since moving to Atlanta. We enjoy our visits no matter what, but it's always fun seeing it with people who've never experienced it before, like my cousin and his family.

My cousin headed back home on Saturday, so we spend Saturday with my dad and stepmother before they left town on Sunday to spend some time with my sister. We took them to Top Golf, which they'd never been to before even though my dad is an avid golfer, and then convinced them to try the conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Doraville, Kura, for dinner. My dad doesn't like sushi at all, but he was game to give it a try and found enough fully cooked items to have a good meal.

It was an exhausting but fun few days, and although it's only a few weeks before our winter break, there's a lot of work that my office needs to get done before then, so it was really nice to have this break and time with family before getting back to the office and pushing through the end of the year.

12.4.25
David Byrne is touring in support of his latest album, Who Is the Sky?, a record I've been enjoying since its release, and last night he came through Atlanta. I'd been keeping my eye on tickets at the Fox Theatre for a few months, waiting to see if ticket prices dropped and also waiting to see if Julie wanted to go to the show with me or not. A few weeks before the show, she decided to skip this one, and since there were a dwindling amount of single tickets left, and the price difference between being 10 rows back and 3 rows back in the pit were negligible, I pulled the trigger and bought the closer seat.

I've only see Byrne once, and that was when he was touring behind his collaborative project with St. Vincent called Love This Giant (in fact, that was only the second show I saw after moving to Atlanta in 2012). It was a great show, and it was the first time I'd seen a rock show where no one (including the percussionists) tethered to a single spot on the floor, a technique that Byrne has employed at many of his shows as a solo artist. He used that again with this show, although it seemed a lot more choreographed and synced with impressive lighting and visuals than the Love This Giant Show.

In addition to several songs from Who Is the Sky? and his solo career, Byrne also played a lot of songs from Talking Heads (nearly half of the 21 song setlist was from his time with that band). He actually opened with a Talking Heads song, the wondrous "Heaven", which he played in a minimalist fashion with only two other instrumentalists on stage with him. I've always loved that song, but it has become especially meaningful to me in the wake of my friend Marc Sloop's early death from cancer-related causes a few years ago: not only was it one of his favorite songs, but our mutual friend Matt Levy played a version of it at Marc's memorial service, and it brought the entire crowd to tears.

I didn't expect the show to start with something that would hit me so hard, but after openly weeping among strangers just as the show was beginning, it kind of opened me up emotionally for the rest of the night. He followed that song with the opening track from Who Is the Sky?, "Everybody Laughs" (which also happens to be the record's best song), and then rolled into another Talking Heads song, the whimsical and absurdist "And She Was". The rest of the setlist was just as impeccable—it didn't seem like there was a single song that didn't belong, and they all flowed together beautifully.

It was a magical evening, and I immediately knew that it was a show that Julie would have wanted to see, but the last North American date on this tour is in just a couple of days in Miami, and we're not going to be able to go to one of those shows. But next time he comes around, we're absolutely going together.

12.9.25
My friend Kirk, who I've known since I was 16 and who was also friends with Marc and Matt who I mentioned in my last entry, also came down to Atlanta from NC for the David Byrne show at the Fox. He bought tickets for himself and his wife Jody as his birthday present to himself, and I was excited to get to hang out with him (I see him most of the time when I go up to the Triangle for a visit, but he hasn't made a trip down to Atlanta until now since I moved down here).

The original plan was for them to get into town and check into their hotel mid-afternoon and then we would meet somewhere for an early dinner and then just hang out until it was time to head for the show. Unfortunately (although not entirely unexpectedly), Kirk and Jody got a late start, and as we were texting during their travels, I knew that not only was dinner out of the question, I was really worried whether they'd even make it to town by the start of the concert.

They did make it with the narrowest of time to spare, but they didn't even have time to check into their hotel—they just got parking somewhere near by and hustled into the theatre to their seats. After the show, it took me about 20 minutes to find them, and by then Kirk had gone to the garage to get the car so he could pick up Jody. So I hung out with her until he showed up a few minutes later, and waved to Kirk, fully expecting that I'd see them the next day since they were planning to stay in town for another couple of days.

But more bad luck: he and Jody both came down with either the flu or Covid, and were stuck in their hotel room together recovering for the next few days. They were actually feeling so poorly that they booked an extra night at the hotel because neither of them was fit to travel on their planned departure date.

So I didn't end up getting to see them really at all, which was a bummer—I was looking forward to showing Kirk some of my favorite things in Atlanta, especially because who knows when he'll visit my city again. But I'm glad they were at least able to see the show before they got sick, and I'll just have to make sure to find some time to hang out with them next time I'm up their way.

12.10.25
I got to talk to my friend Lydia a couple of days ago, which always lifts my spirits. She and I have been able to reconnect over the past couple of years, and even though we don't talk or text often, I feel like she's very present in my life, and it's been so nice to rekindle the friendship that we had in high school that had tapered out a bit with time and physical distance. I'm not big on phone calls generally, but the time goes by quickly in our conversations, and I always feel like the world has a little bit more light in it after we finish talking.

12.11.25
Yesterday was our Early Decision I decision release, and it's the earliest I can remember us doing it due to the way the calendar fell this year (we need to release no later than Dec 15, and we like to release on a Wednesday). It's kind of nice to have that done so quickly—after we get through that process, it kind of feels like the informal start to winter break.

We won't start the university's official days off until Dec 24, but like most of my colleagues, I'll be taking Dec 22 and 23 off, in addition to Jan 2, which means that Dec 19 will be my last day in the office until Jan 5. There's still a lot of work to do between now and next Friday, but ED1 decision release is our heaviest lift in December, and getting past that always feel like crossing a major threshold where we can all take a breath and regroup in preparation for the long slog of Jan-Apr before we wrap up the cycle for this academic year.

12.16.25
I don't know if this says more about me or the average quality of the many recurring meetings on my calendar, but I get genuinely excited when I get a meeting cancelation the day before a scheduled standing meeting. It makes the whole day feel more open, even if the meeting was only planned for half an hour. That's especially true this time of year, when everyone's trying to cram in one last meeting before the holidays hit and people are out of office for a couple of weeks.

12.17.25
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about going to see David Byrne in Atlanta, and how I was bummed that the tour was ending and I wouldn't be able to take Julie since I knew after seeing it that it was a show that she would have loved. But a few days ago, Byrne announced more North American dates for the tour next year, and while he's not coming back to Atlanta, he is going to Durham to play DPAC, and Julie and I decided to make a trip out of it together.

We'll be joined by my friend Lydia and her husband Dave, who live in Durham, and also my friend Tom, who lives up in Richmond. The show is unfortunately the day after Mother's Day, so we won't be able to make a long weekend out of it, instead going up the day of the show and staying a couple of days after to do some of our favorite things around the Triangle. But I'm so psyched that I'll get to see this show again, and more importantly, the Julie will get to see it as well.

12.18.25
Last night we surprised Will by taking him to see Elf: The Musical at the Fox Theatre. This show is of course based on the 2003 Christmas movie starring Will Farrell and Zooey Deschanel. I wasn't expecting it to blow me away (and it didn't), but it was an adequate translation of the movie that was like a frosting-decorated Christmas cookie: a sugar rush that was a little too sweet, enjoyable enough while it lasted, and then immediately erased from your memory because they aren't any distinctive notes beyond the sweetness.

It was a nice prelude to the Christmas season, and even though it was mostly forgettable, it has me looking forward to the start of my holiday break after one more day at work. And Will really had a good time, which was the most important part of the evening anyway.